Photo by remanufactory

I love those aha moments, the light switch moments that help us  see something more clearly. The most unexpected things can trigger them, and when they come, I grab them and treasure them for the gifts they are.

Shireen commented she had one reading my previous post. ”Don’t dull who you are…who you are might inspire someone else!”

Absolutely!

Letting our light shine is a cliche, and yet it’s so hard to even admit we HAVE a light, let alone let it shine. I noticed I had to add a disclaimer (“such as it is”) after I mentioned my light in the post.

Claiming our light and letting it shine was a capital crime in my family of origin, part of the major offense of being “big-headed”. I used to try to make myself small to the point of disappearing. Then I became fat to do the same thing. Being fat is a great way of being invisible, I could make sure no-one saw me, just the fat.

Now I don’t want to be invisible. I was not born to be invisible, none of us were.  I pray to be appropriately big-headed, with a realistic and clear sighted self-love, awake to my own gifts as well as my flaws. To see who I truly am, with no delusions of grandeur or of smallness, and live that truth.

So funny that our language has a term for people who see themselves as bigger than they may be, delusions of grandeur, but no matching term for people who belittle themselves! That’s really the same thing, a delusion of smallness.

I’ve always loved this quote by Marianne Williamson from A Return to Love -

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I’m ready to shine.

How about you? How can you shine your light more today, and inspire someone else to stop making themselves small?